I just got the national ap scholar award on my ap page, does that mean anything for college admissions?
It means that you took a lot of AP tests and did well enough on them.
It means your course load was probably rigorous (with all the AP’s) and that you are academically ready for college level courses (as you did well on those AP tests).
It is a pretty good award if you are in 11th grade since there were some states last year where there was only one 11th grader getting the award in the entire state ,
yeah I’m going to be in 12th grade this year
It should give you a sense of accomplishment. Will it mean anything for college admissions? Not much.
Are AP scores not used in admissions?
AP scores carry little to no weight in the admissions process; they are mainly used for credit and/or placement. Where they are used is as a cross check for the rigor of the AP class at your school. An A in an AP class with a 4 or a 5 on the exam is good; an A with a 1 or a 2 may cause the AO to question whether grade inflation exists at your school.
congrats!
It cant possibly hurt for you to list National AP Scholar on your college applications .
Admins will see it.
The scores are not what is important in your case but the honor. It is no different than listing yourself as a national merit semi finalist or winning a science fair prize.
How the school you are applying to values the honor is very subjective and specific to that school. Duke might consider the honor much more differently than Columbia or your State flagship.
thanks!
It doesn’t hurt, but - as noted above - it primarily confirms that your AP courses prepared you adequately. I suspect it’s a pretty routine honor among high-achieving students looking at the most selective colleges, since they will all have excelled at the “most demanding/challenging available” courseload.
Lot of students get it at the end of 12th. However, based on statistics published by collegeboard, it looks like there were only about 3500 students who might have claimed it on their college app after 11th grade. By comparison, there are 16,000 declared as national merit semifinalists.
do you have a link for those statistics so I can check it out?
@texaspg where can I find those numbers about AP scholars?
Here’s link to the 2014 numbers by state.
http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/2014-AP-Scholar-Counts.xls
@3scoutsmom Thanks!
I was having a hard time with google and went looking for it in 2016 thread because I remember downloading it from there and found your original post there.
If you want to compare National Merit numbers to AP National Scholars here’s chart with the number of NM by state
http://www.nationalmerit.org/annual_report.pdf
it’s on print page 29 but page 31 on my viewer
In 2014 Texas had 1,353 National Merit Semifinalists but only 394 11th grade National AP Scholars
So what’s more important national merit or ap scholar
National Merit can mean $$$, AP National Scholar has no money but few students earn it before they graduate. As for us the $$$ is more important. Hopefully my D will have both! Actually I’d be surprise if most of the kids that make AP National Scholar don’t make National Merit too.